Hello, Earth!

by Karl Hitzemann

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Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. It now includes events in more than 193 countries around the world. As always, we like to provide music for you to use with your students for the celebration of this special day. This year, we thought it would be fun to incorporate ukuleles. Ukes aren't too difficult to learn and they sound great. For those two reasons alone, kids love to play them!

"Hello, Earth!" is a very laid-back, easygoing tune that will make you want to tap your feet and bob your head to the beat. It's very easy to sing and we kept the ukulele part fairly easy, as well. If singing and playing at the same time is too difficult, consider having a group do the singing and another group do the ukulele playing. Note that there is a rhythmic pattern written out for your players, but if they'd like to be more creative, they can strum freely to the beat of the song. For your convenience, you will find an extracted ukulele part on page 51 of this issue.

On the full performance and accompaniment tracks, we have a ukulele playing freely as a guide. There are only four chords used – C, F, Ami, and G. Measure 23 calls for the players to gently knock on the body of the uke for four beats. It's a really neat sound, but if you think that might be a bit risky, you could have your performers tap their feet or pat one of their knees instead.

By the way, since this song doesn't actually mention Earth Day, it could really be used at any time of the year. Besides, as we have said since our very first issue, "Every day is Earth Day." (No, really! Check out Volume 1, Number 1. You'll see.)